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New research collaboration to help create innovative economic model for Canada

April 10, 2012

IBM will invest up to $175 million through December 2014 in the project, as it will construct the "IBM Canada Research and Development Centre" to serve as a foundation for the initiative.

The governments of Canada and Ontario teamed with IBM, the University of Toronto and Western University in a research initiative that will help to solve pressing challenges that exist in cities concerning water, energy and healthcare.

According to a release from the Canadian government, the consortium of academic institutions and the local and national governments in Canada will help to establish a new Ontario-based $210 million dollar research and development initiative that will create 145 new highly skilled jobs in the province and establish a new economic cornerstone for the country.

IBM will invest up to $175 million through December 2014 in the project, as it will construct the “IBM Canada Research and Development Centre” to serve as a foundation for the initiative.

According to the release, the Government of Ontario is investing up to $15 million toward the creation of the centre, helping to ensure that skills needed for developing future communications and information technology products and services are fostered in the province.

This will also help to create a number of IT jobs, as companies located in the region will rely on the new technologies and innovations as ways to save money and link multiple sectors together in the pursuit of overall economic progress.

“Our Government has been building on the strengths found in our region to support the advancement of science and technology and help create value-added jobs ,” said the Honourable Gary Goodyear, Minister of State for the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario (FedDev Ontario). “We are proud to invest in supercomputing infrastructure that will position southern Ontario at the forefront of research and development in areas that are not only critically important to our communities, but also show great commercial promise.”

A release from FedDev Ontario added that the government is going to ensure that new systems are used in the development centre, as the consortium will rely upon state-of-the-art high performance and cloud computing systems to process data in research areas with significant commercialization opportunities, including infrastructure, resource management, and neuroscience.

“Canada needs more knowledge-based industries to diversify our national economic portfolio beyond the current over-weighting of commodities and natural resources and help eliminate our identified innovation gap,” said Dr. David Naylor, president of the University of Toronto.